Love's Rise and Fall
by Ying-Fa-dono
Summary: Rumpelstiltskin's thoughts at the beginning, and the end, of this time with the girl who would remind him how to love. Two-Shot.
1. The Beginning

Gaston and his comrades laughed uproariously as they gulped down yet another flagon of ale. "Victory and wonderment!" Gaston bellowed to his friends. "The war with the ogres has begun! Soon, our town will be free from their tyranny at long last, whilst I ascend to Duke Maurice's throne!"

"Aye!" proclaimed one of his most loyal lackeys. "You've worked hard to earn your engagement to Lady Belle, haven't you Gaston?"

"Of course, you fool!" said Gaston. "Lady Belle is the village's crowning jewel and the only woman truly worthy to be my bride! Word of her beauty can be heard from a hundred miles away and now she's mine! All mine!"

His men cheered and drank to Gaston's good luck again. The hooded stranger sitting quietly in the shadows, however, took a sip of his own drink before muttering under his breath, "Pathetic."

Rumpelstiltskin made it his business to always look into matters with the ogres ever since he became the Dark One. After forging the truce that had saved his son's life, twice has mankind seen fit to do battle with the flesh-eating monsters again. This was the second time. The Duke of the Highlands, Maurice, had suffered skirmishes with the ogres for some time now until finally an overaggressive knight had openly declared war with them. This drunkard now seated across the tavern from him now must be that very knight. If _that_ was the kind of leader the Duke had placed in charge of such a war, Rumpelstiltskin did not like their chances.

"To Sir Gaston," cried the foolish lackey. "Winner of the most coveted hand in the village…no, the kingdom…no, all the kingdoms!"

It was good that those fools were too self absorbed in their drinking to take notice of Rumpelstiltskin rolling his eyes with mild annoyance. If he'd heard one Duke boasting of the beauty and glory of his daughter for the whole kingdom to hear, he'd heard them all. Most of the noblewomen weren't even that pretty, as far as he was concerned. Just fat, spoiled, stupid little brats that their fathers had to coerce puffed-up princes and lords into marrying just so they could get them off their hands and maybe even earn a little gold in the process. Rumpelstiltskin suppressed a small laugh at the thought of what kind of fancy little terror this pathetic excuse for a knight had just tied himself to.

The cluster of drunken knights blundered out of the tavern, singing praises to the knight who'd just signed their death warrant. Rumpelstiltskin gave them…three weeks, maybe a month before two-thirds of the village was reduced to ogre feces. This war was something that they could never be prepared for no matter what that thick-headed knight imagined. What a mess…..

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Three weeks later, a half-starved messenger appeared at the Dark Castle. It had annoyed Rumpelstiltskin to get up from his spinning wheel to answer the door to the simple little visitor, and it annoyed him even more when he saw it was from Duke Maurice himself. As Rumpelstiltskin had predicted, the village was completely unprepared for the ogres' invasion. They had only a few strong walls and a couple royal squads of knights left before the village would be completely devastated.

"…_your power is the only thing in this world that the ogres will bow to_," the Duke had penned. "_Therefore our people are in desperate need of your assistance. Come to us in our time of need, I implore you! Should you do this; every ounce of gold our town has left will be yours as well as our eternal gratitude._"

Rumpelstiltskin looked over his shoulder at the enormous pile of freshly spun gold that sat next to his spinning wheel and snorted with laughter at the Duke's offer of payment. Gold? Really? Was that the only thing they had to offer him as payment? And his gratitude? _Puh-lease. _Who needed that? Indeed, halting the ogres' progress in the war would be only too easy, but to go out of his way and stop them for free was out of the question. He couldn't have word spreading around that the Dark One was going soft and doing charity work for tiny towns, now could he?

Rumpelstiltskin wracked his brain as he spun through memories of when he'd last visited that town. Wasn't Maurice supposed to have some kind of supposedly-coveted-beauty of a daughter? He scanned his eyes around the castle. The spinning wheel was the only object in the room that he touched regularly and everything else was starting to collect a layer of dust. His floors were in need of a good sweeping, and the stairs were in need of scrubbing….

A grin curled his dark features. How funny would it be to have that oaf's pampered little daughter scrubbing his floors and laundering his clothing? It had been a very long time indeed since he'd had a maid (a part of him was still deeply mistrustful of servants and left most minor tasks such as cooking and cleaning to magic). He'd take the girl as payment and bring her here to work for him, teach the spoiled little twit what it was like in the real world.

He spared a moment to wonder what having the duke's daughter work for him would be like. Immediately he pictured a portly little brat in a silk gown on her hands and knees and scrubbing the floor, her whining and complaining falling on his deaf ears. He'd force all manner of hard labor tasks on her until some sense of humility was pounded into her and, if it turned out she was just too annoying to keep, he'd turn her into a slug or something and be done with her.

The idea made him laugh aloud with a nasty delight and so his mind was set. He'd take the duke's daughter as payment for saving them from the ogres. It was a fair deal, her one measly life for the sake of the measly lives of whatever villagers were left. Grinning at his own cleverness, Rumpelstiltskin set off for the castle of Duke Maurice.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

There they were, the pitiful lot of them. There was Maurice, the horrors of war making no impact at all on his portly physique. And the knight who'd started all this in the name of pointless glory, Gaston, looking just as arrogant and pompous as he had when Rumpelstiltskin had last seen him in the tavern. Perhaps he'd sent his old lackeys to their deaths in order to preserve his good looks. And…

Was that her? The duke's daughter, the Lady Belle. Well, for once the rumors were actually true. The girl was nothing at all like he'd pictured. She didn't portray herself as a pampered little cream puff at all. She was lean and lovely with a noblewoman's soft pale skin and a kind face. She had long, auburn hair and full pink lips and eyes of the palest blue. All features of a true beauty. Shame they'd all go to waste once she'd become his housekeeper.

He stated his price for saving the village and watched the color drain from the duke's face and the knight dart forward to defend his hard-fought prize. They refused to hand the girl over to him and turned him away at once. It was here that Rumpelstiltskin gave the duke some credit. A father who would face death if it meant protection for his child. It was an act of courage he could relate to, still, too bad it wouldn't save him from the ogres. Rumpelstiltskin turned to leave.

"No! Wait!"

He smiled. They never just let him walk away. He turned on his heel to see Belle step out from the protective arm of her fiancé. She approached him on her own, her golden gown trailing behind her and took a deep breath as though to steady herself.

"I will go with him," she announced to the room.

Rumpelstiltskin laughed in delight. The others weren't as willing to let her go, on the other hand.

"I forbid it!" bellow Gaston.

"No!" gasped Maurice.

"No one decides my fate but me," Belle insisted. "I shall go."

"It's forever, dearie," Rumpelstiltskin warned her, fairly. Best she know exactly what she was getting herself into if this was to be her own idea.

"My family," she asked him. "My friends…they will all live?"

Rumpelstiltskin bowed to her. "You have my word."

Belle nodded in understanding. "Then you have mine," she told him. "I will go, with you, forever."

"Deal!" Rumpelstiltskin cheered, laughing wickedly at the success of his latest deal.

"Belle!" Maurice cried, coming over to the girl. "You cannot do this! Belle, please, you can't go with this…" he spared Rumpelstiltskin a look of disgust. "…beast!"

Rumpelstiltskin pulled a face of mock hurt.

"Father, Gaston," Belle said to each man gently. "It's been decided.  
Rumpelstiltskin admired the girl's courage. She wasn't nearly as pitiful as he'd expected her to be. Perhaps it really would be worth his while, making her his caretaker. Maybe even if she behaved herself she'd earn a reprieve and get to go home. But, that would be something she'd have to work _very_ hard for. Rumpelstiltskin did not easily give up that which he takes.

"Y'know," he said, coming up to the girl and her father. "She's right. The deal…is _struck._" And a deal struck with him was NOT broken. Maurice's jaw dropped into a look of hopelessness.

With one last quip about their luck in the war and a laugh in the face of the hopeless nobles, Rumpelstiltskin put a hand on Belle's back and guided her from her home to take her back to his castle, strutting proudly at the newest acquisition to his collection of triumphs. Oh, how he loved it when he got his way.


	2. The End

The cup made him stop. One moment his vision had been red, blinded by rage and a hurt that killed him to feel and the next he was staring at the teacup, _her_ teacup, in his hand and his mind torn. Part of him wanted to smash it to pieces along with the others but the other part of him, the part that was bleeding from the raw wound in his heart, couldn't bring himself to do it. Ultimately, he set it back down on his table and stepped away from it, not wanting to look at it anymore.

Rumpelstiltskin glanced around. The main hall was in disarray. The room that, since _she'd_ come here, had been so well kept and impressive, was now a mess. Shards of glass covered the floor where he'd attacked his cabinet full of trinkets and where he'd thrown half his tea set against the wall. His mind was clouded and he didn't quite believe that he'd done all this. He'd just needed to break something; he needed _something_ in the outside world to mirror what he felt in his heart at the moment. He'd never felt so stupid, he'd never felt so hurt, he'd never felt so…so _betrayed_…

How could Belle have done this to him? He'd never have believed it of her. She was not a devious creature, not in the least. For her to use his feelings like that, to abuse the tenderness that had been growing in his heart for months and turn it against him like that. Belle had always been the perfect example of goodness, with a heart as beautiful as her face. He would never have imagined she would do this to him…never….

_No_, he thought suddenly. The first clear thought he'd had since shutting Belle in the dungeon at least an hour ago. Belle _wouldn't_ have done this to him. She was too good and too kind to contemplate such an act. She wasn't the type to turn love into a weapon. _That_ kind of act, _that _kind of evil had Regina's name written all over it. This had been her plot, not Belle's. How had that wretched witch even found out about Belle anyway? No one was supposed to know about her, he'd let no one else see her…

With the sudden feeling that his insides had turned to iron, Rumpelstiltskin collapsed into a chair and closed his eyes. How could he have been so foolish? How could he have allowed this to happen to himself? Time and again since he'd taken Belle here to his home to serve him, he'd caught himself beginning to fall into a dangerous trap. Time and again he'd caught himself feeling things he shouldn't have been. Like when he'd seen the adorable way Belle had tried to apologize for chipping one of his teacups, the way she would gather up the courage to ask him questions about himself, and the way she'd fallen into his arms that day when she'd tried to open the curtains. With each incident, he'd felt his heart going out to her, welcoming her in until she'd burrowed a place in his heart.

Rumpelstiltskin rubbed his eyes and shook his head. He should have known better. He never should have brought her here in the first place. It had been a joke at first. He didn't have any idea what he'd been getting into in the beginning. But now it was too late. Now Belle had become something so precious to him that he couldn't fully let her go.

He'd been able to tell that, even though Belle was reasonably content with her decision to accompany him to his home and work for him, she wasn't entirely happy. She'd had to drop everything from her old life and come and work for him as a slave. That's why he'd let her leave in the first place. As he'd watched her go earlier that day, half of him wished her to be happy in her freedom, while the other half begged and pleaded for her to return and knew full well he'd never really be able to live without her.

He loved her. With all his heart and soul, he loved her. His heart, black as it was, allowed her in completely even though he'd expressly told himself that must never happen. She mesmerized him with her beauty and kindness, her courage and cleverness. She was everything, _everything_ that he'd never deserve. To add to his torture he thought there was a moment, one tiny moment that she loved him too. His heart had swelled with selfish joy when he'd seen her coming back. He thought she'd come back for him, that a fraction of her needed him as desperately as he needed her. Then, when she'd sat next to him at the spinning wheel, when she leaned into him, he'd thought his wildest dreams had come to life. He gave into his desires for the smallest moment and felt a fragment of bliss that could only come from her love.

But that was when everything went wrong. As he'd let himself get carried away in the moment, he'd felt something leave him. It had felt like someone had pulled a heavy blanket off his sleeping form, leaving him cold and shivery. When he realized what was going on, a new emotion had taken control. Fear. A terrible, paralyzing fear that he hadn't felt in many years, not since the days where he'd been nothing but a powerless mortal. Fear was how the darkness let him know something was wrong, that something threatened his invulnerability. The same thing had happened when his son had tried to pull him into a portal of time and space to take him to a world where power did not exist.

The memory of his son triggered a new wave of anger, bitterness, and sadness into Rumpelstiltskin's already heavy heart. Bae. His poor son, Bae. His son who was now worlds away in a distant place where his magic could not reach. He'd broken his promise to him. He'd betrayed his son, yet again. Hadn't he promised that he'd do nothing else but search for a way to reunite the two of them? Hadn't he expressly sworn that he'd love nothing else until his son was safely back with him? Yet, he'd nearly lost it all due to his growing fondness for Belle. She'd filled the void in his heart that was created when he'd lost Bae and he'd almost forgotten everything, had almost lost the one thing that could bring his son back to him.

The fear he'd felt as his powers left him had boiled into a rage. He'd pushed her away, refused to listen to her pleas, and even locked her up downstairs like he hadn't done in months. He couldn't lose his power; he couldn't forsake everything he'd been working for. Years and years of plots and plans, dreams and schemes, trickery and devilish deals would all have gone to waste if he'd allowed the power of his love for Belle to run its full course.

Did he no longer love his son? Did he no longer wish to right the wrong he'd committed against his child, his flesh and blood, to choose a life with Belle instead? The very thought sent a wave of cold coursing down his body. If Belle did care about him at all, she cared about him with his powers. She'd never seen his true self. Belle only knew Rumpelstiltskin, the Dark One, the powerful imp who lived in lavish castle and owned the world's most coveted treasures. She'd never met Rumpelstiltskin, the Man who Ran, the pitiful and cowardly cripple with only a spinning wheel to his name. Belle was the daughter of a duke! She'd never have looked twice at the man he used to be. Not to mention that it was miraculous that she didn't look at him with hatred and spite now even though he'd taken her away from her family and friends.

No, Rumpelstiltskin decided. Belle had to go. He couldn't keep her here anymore. He'd say whatever it took to make her leave and never come back this time. The thought of living without her killed him, but it had to be done. Now that the truth had come out, now that he knew she was the bane to his power, his plans, everything he strived for, he couldn't keep her. It would be better this way. She'd be free from him, return to her family, and give her love, the love he wanted so much, to someone more deserving. It didn't matter if he was in pain. Creatures of darkness such as himself welcomed pain and loneliness. It was their fate. This pain would make him stronger in the end. He wouldn't let it make him weak, he couldn't afford weakness, he'd never go back to being weak ever again! He'd take whatever bond that was between them and shatter it. It was for the greater good, what was best for both of them.

When Rumpelstiltskin finally opened his eyes again, weak sunlight was beginning to appear over the horizon and stream into the room. He wasn't sure if his contemplations had ever truly given way to sleep and bad dreams, but it had taken him all night to come to a conclusion. Belle was still down in the dungeon, awaiting her fate. He wouldn't wait to do what must be done. He rose from his chair and made his way to the dungeons, his boots crunching down on broken glass from the previous night's fit of rage.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Belle was sitting up in her cell, awaiting his decision on what was to be done about last night's event. "So…what are you going to do to me?" she asked, glancing up at him. She didn't sound afraid. She sounded resolute, prepared for whatever it was he'd throw her way. It was just like the day he'd met her, that courage that he so admired…

Rumpelstiltskin made his point as clear as possible as he pointed to the door. "Go." He turned his back to her, hoping she'd leap at the chance for escape and leave him in peace.

But Belle did not move. "Go?" her voice suddenly sounded very small.

He did not turn to look at her, a lie ready on his lips. "I don't want you anymore, dearie." He'd said it like a child who was finished playing with a broken old toy.

Rumpelstiltskin listened as Belle got to her feet and made for the door. Suddenly her footsteps froze. How he wished she'd just go. If only she would just leave and end this quickly and not torment him a moment longer. But, of course, she'd never let him off that easily. She came back and faced him with that remarkable bravery. She told him that if he could have been happy, that if he'd truly believed that she wanted him, he'd be free. But he saw through the lies. There was no freeing him with her. She didn't really love him, how on earth could she? He called her on her lies, showing her how easily he saw through them. But Belle refused to back down until she had her full say.

"You're a coward, Rumpelstiltskin," she said, firing that hateful word at him. "And no matter how thick you make your skin, that doesn't change."

The word coward made his blood boil and his next taunt came too readily. "I'm not a coward, dearie," he hissed back. "It's quite simple, really." He inched very slightly closer so to see the effect his next words would have on her. "My power…means more to me…than _you_."

He'd done it. He'd hurt her. Outwardly, she'd taken the blow splendidly, but he saw something change in her eyes. There was pain there that wasn't there before. Still, she fought back. "No," she stated. "No, it doesn't. You just don't think I can love you."

_You can't_, a voice cried out in the back of his mind. _You could never love me. You can't! You can't! That's why I have to do this._

"Now, you've made your choice," said Belle, trying her best to sound like his fate did not bother her but the pain in her eyes was becoming clearer. "And you're going to regret it…forever…" the pain in those breathtaking blue eyes had begun to manifest itself in the form of tears. "All you'll have…is an empty heart…and a chipped cup…"

Rumpelstiltskin never looked away from her eyes even if the sight of those tears killed him. Thankfully, she acted before he could. She turned from him and left the dungeon. He listened to her footsteps echo through the halls starting as firm, resolute steps and then breaking into a run.

Good. She should run. She should run as far from him as she could. Run someplace where he wouldn't see her anymore. Run…and take his heart with her….


End file.
